Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1884 — Cost of the Capital. [ARTICLE]

Cost of the Capital.

I have been figuring up what this capital of ours has cost us since the beginning, and I find that the amount is over $100,000,000. The subject was investigated by Congress in 1876. The total at that time was a cost of $94,362,423; since then $5,500,000 has been paid out for public buildings alone, and the amounts paid out for works of art, park decorations, and other things, will run the total far ahead of the amount above stated. For a number of years it has cost more than $1,000,000 a year to pay the Government expenses of the District of Columbia, and since 1862 the amounts have been much higher. In 1873 the amount was more than $8,000,000. In 1875 it was more than $7,000,000, while from 1828 to 1852 it was less than $1,000,000 a year. In 1814 only SI,BOO was appropriated for the District of Columbia, and it was not until 1837 that the yearly proportion reached $1,000,000. It is interesting to look over the items of permanent improvements in Washington. These include the original cost of the buildings and their repairs, furnishing, and keeping in order. The following estimate, though not exactly correct, is approximately so. It is less, rather than greater, than the actual cost, some of the minor expenses during the last seven years being omitted. The Capitol has cost $17,672,123, the Patent Office over $13,000,000, the Treasury about $7,200,000, the Washington streets more than $6,000,000, the State Department about $7,000,000, the Navy nearly $4,000,000, the White House, two parks, and public grounds, about $2,000,000. —Washington (D. C.) Republic.